Not sure - after all, Seymour is talking to the Devil, and quite clearly being misled and wound up by him. Maybe Seymour should just take his own hint, and ignore the Devil's teasing and wind-ups, and renounce him properly, once and for all. The sad thing is, he doesn't even realise he's being baited.

Seymour is talking to the Devil, and quite clearly being misled and wound up by him. Maybe Seymour should just take his own hint, and ignore the Devil's teasing and wind-ups, and renounce him properly, once and for all. The sad thing is, he doesn't even realise he's being baited.

Why assume Satan's baiting him?_________________"To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others."
- Anne-Sophie Swetchine

So I'd rather say his work ethic is "I'll do it, but with as little effort as possible". It's still perfectly clear that he cares, as it were, about his work. I'm sure there are a million more examples as to why he'd be actively baiting other characters, but I can't be bothered looking for them.